Hotel Clovis issued temporary seal of occupancy

Clovis city officials have issued a temporary seal on a certificate of occupancy for the Hotel Clovis, and expect to issue a full certificate well before the seal expires in 60 days.

"They still have a few minor items to comply (with)," Building Safety Director Pete Wilt said, "but big picture, they're going to do all right."

Since August of last year, Tierra Realty of Taos has been working to convert the hotel, closed since 1983 and under city ownership since 2004, into an apartment complex. The company has been accepting residents into its Building A for about seven weeks while work continued on the main hotel building and Building B.

Collectively, the three buildings will offer 59 apartments of one-, two- and three-bedroom variety. The project has a deadline of Dec. 31, imposed by the state's Mortgage Finance Authority, to qualify for about $9 million in state-issued tax credits. The tax credits have no impact on the city's lease with Tierra Realty and owner Stephen Crozier.

During a pair of preliminary walk-throughs over the last two weeks, Wilt said no major red flags came up, but noted that some bathroom fixtures had yet to be installed, some sealing was yet to be completed and the fire alarm and sprinkler system needed tweaking.

The fire alarm system, Wilt said, could tell building officials a fire alarm went off, and additional work was needed for the system to give more specific location information. Other issues include landscaping and parking upgrades.

"They've still got a pretty big punch list of their own," Wilt said. "But as far as we're concerned, the major life safety things have been addressed."

Tierra Realty has a company policy not to speak with media.

Another inspection will be required within 60 days. Wilt said the expectation was that Tierra would be done with their minor issues at around the 30-day mark and contact Wilt to set an appointment up.